After five years at the helm, Phillip Cocu left PSV Eindhoven to join Turkish Fenerbahce. Mark van Bommel is now the coach of the defending Eredivisie champions and the one tasked with the assignment of leading this talented squad into the Champions’ League group stage.
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BATE Borisov vs PSV Eindhoven Preview
PSV’s opponent is BATE Borisov. The champions of Belarus eliminated Qarabag (1-0, 1-1) and HJK Helsinki (0-0, 2-1) in the previous two rounds in order to reach this stage of the qualifiers. They have participated in the Champions’ League group stage five times in the last ten years, so even though they might seem overmatched by PSV on paper, they likely won’t be on the pitch.
PSV Eindhoven’s pre-season went rather smoothly. Three straight impressive friendly match victories over Galatasaray (3-1), Olympiakos (4-0) and Valencia 2-1 were followed by a Dutch Super Cup penalty shootout loss to Feyenoord (0-0) and two wins Eredivisie’s first two rounds versus Utrecht (4-0) and at Sittard (2-1).
Player to watch
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Hirving “Chucky” Lozano is PSV’s player to watch. The 23-year-old Mexican striker, who scored 17 goals and recorded 8 assists last season, had a memorable World Cup and wrote his name on the scoresheet in both domestic league games to start the season.
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PSV skipped European football last season, losing to Osijek in Europa League’s third qualifying round. It was the first time since 1996/97 they didn’t compete in any of Europe’s two main competitions. They’ll be highly motivated to put the embarrassment of that failure as far back down memory lane as possible by eliminating BATE Borisov.
Kick-off Time
The first leg is due to take place on Tuesday, August 21 in Borisov Arena, Belarus, with the kick-off time set at 21:00 CET.
